<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Tender by hypnoshatesme</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23577286">Tender</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypnoshatesme/pseuds/hypnoshatesme'>hypnoshatesme</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Magnus Archives (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, M/M, Making Out, This goes nowhere, and blindness, and little else, mentions of missing eyes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 21:35:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,695</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23577286</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypnoshatesme/pseuds/hypnoshatesme</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Gerry stopped his sketching, shifting his head slightly towards Michael, "Hm?"</p>
<p>Michael paused for a moment before mumbling, "Can I...kiss you?"</p>
<p>Gerry smiled softly, "Yes."</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gerard Keay/Michael Shelley</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>88</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Tender</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Gerry?", came the gentle whisper from above him where Michael’s head was resting against his own.</p>
<p>It was cold and gray outside and they had curled up on their couch underneath a blanket, TV running without neither really paying attention to it. Gerry was sketching lazily and Michael resting against him, listening to the scratching of the pencil against the paper.</p>
<p>Gerry stopped his sketching, shifting his head slightly towards Michael, "Hm?"</p>
<p>Michael paused for a moment before mumbling, "Can I...kiss you?"</p>
<p>Gerry smiled softly, "Yes."</p>
<p>He put his notebook away as Michael detached himself from Gerry, leaving the side he had just been leaning against exposed to the light chill of the room. It made Gerry shiver, despite him feeling rather warm overall. Michael's hand carefully followed the line of his shoulder up to his face, and Gerry knew it was for orientation but it still made him sigh appreciatively.</p>
<p>Michael's face was close then, closer than what he used to dare linger when he could still see, Gerry’s gaze too intense for him to bear. Though Gerry missed the soft gray eyes every day, he did enjoy taking in the soft curve of Michael’s lips, the freckles on his nose, from up close, loved the tickle of Michael’s breath against Gerry’s lips. Michael still blushed when they lingered like that, and Gerry wondered if it was the memory of how uncomfortable he used to feel, or if he simply could feel Gerry’s eyes on him, still intense but no longer overwhelming. He’d ask one day, maybe. But certainly not with Michael's mouth so torturously close to his own. A promise of warmth and softness, sweetness.</p>
<p>Michael was holding Gerry’s face in his hands, thumbs tenderly stroking his jaw, his cheeks, brushing his lips. Gerry held still, and watched as Michael finally closed in, lips meeting Gerry’s expecting ones. It was hesitant, careful, lips barely brushing against Gerry’s. It always was because Michael expected him to change his mind , to push him away. Gerry never did, but he had come to understand that it wasn't anything he did wrong that made Michael's kisses like this, it was simply what Michael's brain told him was bound to happen, no matter how unlikely it seemed based on past experience.</p>
<p>Gerry returned the kiss sweetly, reassuring Michael that he still wanted to be kissed, that he wasn't going to push him away. And slowly, Michael deepened the kiss and Gerry was already drunk on it by the time Michael's fingers traced down his throat, eliciting a small gasp from him, an opening for Michael to tentatively push his tongue through. Gerry still remembered the uncertain look Michael would give him before. He’d still sometimes break the kiss to ask for permission. Now he opted for gently lickig gerrys lips and Gerry opened his mouth, welcoming the sweet taste of Michael's tongue.</p>
<p>Michael shifted so he was sitting in Gerry’s lap, straddling him, and Gerry’s hands came to rest on Michael's hips, steadying him as Michael tipped Gerry’s head further back to deepen the kiss. Gerry groaned when he felt long fingers tangle in his hair and tug gently. Michael’s other hand was roaming his chest, clearly growing frustrated at the lack of exposed skin below the neck. Gerry knew Michael would usually take to tracing his arm up to the shoulder, but Gerry was wearing a sweater for once, instead of his usual short sleeves or sleeveless tops. It wasn't even his, but Michael's, and he stole it for the sole reason that it smelled of him and he couldn't be bothered to get a shirt out of the closet in the morning. He was a bit warm in it, but Gerry was willing to pay that price for the illusion of Michael hugging him for a whole day. It would probably get a bit inconvenient if they'd actually try to do that.</p>
<p>Michael made a small, frustrated noise as his fingers curled into the fabric of the sweater, and Gerry couldn't help himself from chuckling into the kiss, making Michael shudder at the sensation. Michael pulled away then, making Gerry whine a little at the loss. It was Michael's turn to chuckle.</p>
<p>"May I…?", he whispered, voice low, but somehow still shy as he tugged lightly on the sweater.</p>
<p>Gerry nodded before his head caught up enough to the situation to remember that was rather unhelpful, "Yeah…" he breathed, planting a kiss against Michael's jaw.</p>
<p>Michael's hand wandered down to the hem of the sweater and Gerry’s breath hitched when his fingers brushed against the skin there. Michael’s fingers were always cool. Michael's lips pulled into a slight grin at that. He pushed the fabric up and Gerry moved to remove it completely, shivering as the cooler air met his heated skin.</p>
<p>Michael was quick to fill the space again, arms wrapping around Gerry’s neck and pulling him closer, bringing their lips together again. His fingers were twisting Gerry’s hair around them at the back of his neck and Gerry’s found their way back to Michael’s hips, carefully snaking underneath the fabric of his jumper.</p>
<p>“This okay?”, Gerry mumbled into the kiss, despite the pleasant hum coming from Michael.</p>
<p>He liked to make sure, just in case Michael was falling back into old habits. Gerry had become rather good with telling when he was disappearing into some corner of his mind, letting Gerry proceed not because he wanted to, but because he was afraid Gerry might leave if he dared to tell him no. It had become a bit more difficult with eyes that wouldn’t get that cloudy, staring into the middle distance kind of gaze. And despite it not happening anymore, not for a very long while, Gerry still preferred to make sure, because often the asking would pull Michael back and remind him that it was okay to voice any discomfort with Gerry.</p>
<p>Michael nodded and mumbled a low 'yes' before sucking in Gerry’s lower lip and biting down, and Gerry gasped as Michael's tongue came to trace the metal of his lip ring. It was a poorly kept secret that Michael enjoyed playing with, probably more than Gerry did, who had never really lost the habit of licking at it whenever he spaced out. It was quite the different sensation when Michael did it, and sometimes Gerry couldn’t tell which of the two was having a better time when Michael dared to indulge. Gerry sighed, licking his upper lip. He splayed his hands on Michael’s lower back, enjoying the feeling of Michael leaning into the touch, a small gasp escaping his lips.</p>
<p>Michael’s hands were tracing down the back of Gerry’s neck and he let go of Gerry’s lip with a pop. He didn’t pull away, though, trailing kisses along Gerry’s jaw, down his neck. His hands had found their way Gerry’s shoulders, long fingers splaying out, tracing the assorted freckles there Michael had internalised long before he lost his eyes, many a late morning spent watching his fingers following their trail, kissing them. Gerry’s grip tightened on his back, gooseflesh spreading on his arms, breath hitching, as Michael’s lips brushed against a particularly sensitive spot, where neck turns to shoulder.</p>
<p>Michael chuckled a little, his breath against Gerry's sensitive skin making latter shiver, hands finding their way down Gerry’s chest, slowly, tenderly. Michael loved the small twitches of muscle under his fingers, the soft irregularities of Gerry’s breathing, the slightly quickened heartbeat Michael felt when he pressed his hand over the spot where it beat. He was so very warm underneath Michael’s lips, neck and ears probably dusted pink, and Michael was so very happy that image was burned into his memory, distantly wondering what exact shade it was right now, as Michal traces Gerry’s collarbones, a ghost of a touch that made Gerry breathe out, shaky.</p>
<p>Michael sighed, content, bringing his hands back to Gerry’s shoulders. Michael buried his face in the crook of Gerry’s neck, hands lazily running up and down his arms, tracing lean muscle with dull fingernails and enjoying the gentle shivers running through Gerry’s body in response. He pressed his lips to the spot where shoulder and neck met and let it rest there, drinking in the warmth of the smooth skin underneath his lips. He wrapped his arms around Gerry’s middle, pulling him closer, pressing his nose into Gerry’s neck, breathing him in deeply.</p>
<p>They stayed like that and Michael felt Gerry relax, his heartbeat slow, his breath calm. It wasn’t the most comfortable position, Michael’s long form difficult to fit against Gerry’s shorter one while sitting, but Michael didn’t care. Gerry’s fingers were tracing his spine, more pronounced with how strained his back was in the current position and it was Michael who shivered now, breathing out shakily. </p>
<p>“Wanna lay down?”, Gerry mumbled, and Michael felt the vibrations of his voice more than he heard him.</p>
<p>He pressed a kiss to Gerry’s jaw, “Yeah…”</p>
<p>Gerry nodded, wrapping his arms around Michael and gently pulling him down into a lying position on the couch. It took a bit of shuffling - made more difficult by the fact that neither was letting go of the other - but eventually they managed to find a comfortable position for both, one where Michael could bury his face in Gerry’s neck and Gerry could pull him flush against himself, fingers combing through golden curls. Michael absent-mindedly felt for the blanket that had fallen to the floor, long arm having no problem with reaching it and pulling it, with some help from Gerry, back unto the couch to cover them.</p>
<p>“Aren’t you cold?”, Michael mumbled, running his hand down Gerry’s still exposed shoulder, “You can pull the blanket further up, I don’t mind.”</p>
<p>Gerry brought his free hand to lace his fingers through Michael’s on his shoulder, “Mhm, I’m fine as long as you stay there.”, he teased.</p>
<p>“Ah...that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make, then.”, Michael chuckled, pressing his lips to the spot underneath Gerry's ear before burying his nose in Gerry’s neck again, sighing contently.</p>
<p>Gerry smiled, “Of course you do…”, and closed his eyes, squeezing Michael’s hand gently.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I have no recollection of writing this, but it didn't seem too bad when I found it so I cleaned it up a bit for y'all!</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>